The hearing started in the High Court on the petition of Sachin Pilot camp!

A bench of the Rajasthan High Court began hearing on the petition of MLAs challenging the notice of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly about disqualifying disgruntled Congress MLAs. Sachin Pilot and 18 other Congress MLAs have filed this petition.

In the notice, the legislators have been asked to respond by Friday to the Congress' demand for disqualification from the state assembly.

Assembly Speaker CP Joshi will hear the matter at five o'clock in the evening, while the notice said that he will look into the matter at one o'clock in the afternoon.

The petition of disgruntled MLAs first came up before Justice Satish Chandra Sharma on Thursday but his lawyer Harish Salve asked for more time to file a new petition. After a fresh petition was filed by the pilot camp, he was referred to the bench in the evening but later the matter was adjourned for Friday.

A bench of Chief Justice Inderjit Mahanti and Justice Prakash Gupta heard the petitions on Friday. The bench, meanwhile, accepted the application to include Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi as a defendant in the case. The Congress had complained to the Speaker that the legislators had violated the whip of the party continuing to attend two meetings of the Congress Legislature Party on Monday and Tuesday. Subsequently, the Speaker issued notices to these disgruntled MLAs.

However, the pilot camp argues that the party whip only applies when the assembly session is in progress. In the complaint sent to the Speaker, the Congress has demanded action against Pilot and other rebel MLAs under paragraph 2 (1) (a) of the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution.